Public Administration in Ancient India c20.53

c20.53

There was an important department of government which controlled the construction and maintenance of canals, lakes and tanks. Megasthenes says: “Some Officers-of-State superintend the rivers, measure the lands, as is done in Egypt, and inspect the sluices by which water is let out from the main canals into their branches, so that everyone may have an equal supply of it.”² The Irrigation Officers of Chandragupta built a dam at Girnār, and thus formed the great Sudarsana lake. And in Asoka’s reign, his governor of Surāshtra constructed canals to utilise the waters of this lake. In 150 A.D. this dam was rebuilt by Rudradāman, and in the fifth century it was repaired by Chakrapālita, Skandagupta’s governor.³ Sung Yun, speaking of irrigation in Kasmir, says: “At the proper time they let the streams overflow the land by which the soil is rendered soft and fertile.”⁴ In the Rājataranginī we find a detailed account of the irrigational achievements of Suyya, the Minister of Avantivarman, King of Kasmir (855-883 A.D.). Some parts of Kasmir were liable to be inundated by disastrous floods, and to remain submerged during a great part of the year. Suyya built dykes to prevent the floods, and drained the marshes. He also constructed canals to divert the water of the rivers, and thus procured a supply of artificial water for villages which had so long been dependent on the rainfall. He further arranged on a permanent basis for the size and distribution of the watercourse for each village, and by this method of using the streams for irrigation, embellished all regions with an abundance of irrigated fields yielding the most excellent produce. Suyya, in the words of the Rājataranginī, “ made the different streams (i.e. Sindhu and Vitastā) with their waves which are (like) the quivering tongues of snakes, move about according to his will, just as a conjurer (does with) the snakes.”¹